New Delhi, Oct 6 (IANS) The Modi government and the BJP are trying to convert the army's surgical strikes "into political grandstanding and to whip up jingoistic chauvinism", the CPI-M has said.
And a week after the surgical strikes across the Line of Control (LoC) was announced, "there is much which is unclear about this operation and what it has achieved", CPI-M journal People's Democracy said.
"Whatever was done in terms of a military operation is now sought to be projected more to cater to the domestic constituency of the RSS-BJP and to create an aura around the Prime Minister as one who brooks no nonsense from Pakistan," it said in an editorial.
The CPI-M said the Modi government had not released any video footage or evidence of the September 28-29 surgical strikes on the terrorist launch pads in Pakistani territory.
"It is incumbent upon the government to report to the people the nature of the military action that was taken.
"Without doing so, the suspicion is growing that the government and the ruling party (are) seeking to convert what was claimed to be a pre-emptive counter terrorism strike into political grandstanding and to whip up jingoistic chauvinism."
The Communist Party of India-Marxist said the jingoistic statements made by senior ministers of the Modi cabinet "display an infantile triumphalism".
"Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has declared that Pakistan has not yet come out of the anaesthesia delivered during the surgical strike. M. Venkaiah Naidu has characterised Pakistan as a thief which was bitten by a scorpion but cannot cry out.
"These statements seem to be meant to provoke Pakistan to retaliatory action which can then be used to escalate the military situation," it said.
The editorial said the mass evacuation in Punjab's border belt "has been badly resented by the local people who face dislocation and disruption of their livelihood".
It said the Modi government had been told by all the major powers - the US, Russia, China and the UN - to exercise restraint and not let the situation get out of control. Pakistani too has got the same message.
"But the narrow compulsions of the prospective elections in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh dictate a strident and shrill rhetoric which undermines any steps to be taken to defuse tensions," it said.
"If the Modi government has a modicum of national interest in mind, it will desist from sabre-rattling vis-?-vis Pakistan and bend its energies towards strengthening the border security apparatus to counter cross-border terrorism."
